What Man City charges anger Liverpool before Premier League game?

Clubs are reportedly exploring claims after Man City verdict – one of those, Liverpool, are first opponent in fallout.

Manchester City are preparing for their first football match since receiving a guilty verdict for multiple breaches of Premier League financial rules and – of course – their opponent on Sunday is one of the clubs that hold grievances over their losses during the seasons in question.

Liverpool’s Anfield crowd is expected to deliver an angry reception for the Premier League clash, and City manager Enzo Maresca and his players must prepare for the backlash to continue throughout the game itself.

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City have protested their innocence and have appealed the verdict that went against them on more than 100 charges of financial wrongdoing.

Still, the scandal remains the biggest in the history of club football’s richest, most competitive and most popular league, and the backlash from the stands is likely to linger long after any appeal outcome or potential punishments are finalised.

The current crop of players and staff are quite simply going to have to face the music for charges that stretch from 2009 to 2018.

The fact that their opening match after the international window, when the guilty verdict was delivered, is at Anfield is something that a scriptwriter may even pause to think is outlandish.

“If they want an understanding of how angry the game ⁠is going to be, then Anfield will tell them like you would never believe,” former Manchester United captain and England defender Gary Neville declared recently on The Overlap podcast.

“I suspect there may be banners, there will certainly be chanting. There will be a reception like you have never seen for them at Anfield… it will be a brutal day.”

Why are Liverpool set to give Man City an angry reception?

Of all the clubs that finished second best to City since the Abu Dhabi buyout, Liverpool will argue that they have been among the hardest hit.

There is a growing feeling that any titles that City are stripped of should be awarded to their nearest rivals, or defeated finalists, during the period investigated.

For Liverpool, however, their two closest calls with City came after 2018.

Under former coach Jurgen Klopp, Liverpool won the Premier League in 2020, but the team also finished second to Pep Guardiola’s City by one point in the 2018-19 and 2021-22 seasons.

Both were memorable title races that raised the bar in terms of points earned and the standard of football played.

Neither will see Liverpool retrospectively awarded the title if the Premier League does indeed choose to go down that path regarding honours won in the seasons that were under investigation.

Liverpool’s fans will assert, and most likely vociferously argue on Sunday, that what helped City reach that level was nearly a decade of rule-breaking, as the independent panel has found.

Liverpool do, however, have a claim to at least one title in the period in question.

The Reds, under Brendan Rodgers, finished runners-up by two points to City in 2013-2014 – Steven Gerrard’s infamous slip in a match against Chelsea the moment etched on everyone’s memory from that campaign.

It left the Anfield faithful continuing their wait for a first top-flight title since 1990.

Only weeks earlier, Gerrard was the star of the show as Liverpool beat City 3-2 to seemingly put one hand on the elusive title.

Any retrospective award of titles could see club legend Gerrard finally hold a Premier League winner’s medal.

Do any of Man City’s current setup remain from the period of the charges?

Aside from Phil Foden, who is suspended for the match, no current member of City’s squad even played for the club from 2009-2018.

Enzo Maresca, who was a youth-team coach for City in 2020-21 and was assistant to Guardiola in 2022-2023, took over as City’s first-team manager only in June.

Still, they will be the ones bearing the brunt of the widespread discontent from fan bases up and down the country in the coming months.

What will be intriguing is who from City’s ownership or board attends the Liverpool game.

How much will the matter weigh on the players under the most intense pressure? And what will be the reaction of City’s match-going supporters, with the future of their club so uncertain – the potential sanctions include a huge points deduction, even expulsion from the Premier League – and the violations of its ownership clear for all to see in the commission’s verdict?

City lead the league with five wins from five games – all of which were played when the club was being accused of those financial breaches.

Now the guilty verdict has arrived, it’s time to see the impact on the team – and the reaction of its rivals.